More than a year after solar power installer and financier Sunrun announced exiting from the Nevada market, the company is planning to go back. Nevada's State Assembly recently passed a bill that reinstates net metering for solar rooftops.
Last year, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved a plan to reduce net metering tariffs for rooftop solar installers. Governor Brian Sandoval had sided with the PUC decision. It resulted into widespread uproar over the decision as it affected around 17,000 existing customers of solar rooftops.
SolarCity, now part of Tesla, pulled out of the Nevada market in protest and Sunrun followed suit. With the Nevada State Assembly reinstating net metering, Sunrun has now announced it is becoming active in Nevada again.
"The near unanimous bipartisan support for legislation to reinstate net metering and establish a bill of rights for solar customers is a reflection of overwhelming public demand for affordable, clean energy options," said Lynn Jurich, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Sunrun. "Thanks to the hard work of Governor Sandoval and Nevada State Legislators, we can now say with confidence that Sunrun is coming back to Nevada."
Gov. Sandoval is expected to sign the bill very soon.
The bill requires utilities to credit rooftop solar homeowners on the retail rate for the energy they export to the grid. It also ensures that no credit rates are slapped on homeowners as more solar comes up on Nevada's roofs. The bill AB 405 assures grandfathering of net metering credit rates for 20 years.
The state assembly recently also passed a bill which increases its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 40% by 2030, with energy storage meeting 10% of the RPS by 2030.